Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

My oldest is excitedly participating in her school’s ‘Battle of the Books’ this year–you read as many as you can off of a specific list of books, and then are part of a team that answers trivia questions about them all–and many of the books on the list are also Beehive nominees (the Beehive Book Award being Utah’s children’s choice award for literature).  One of the ones she had me check out of the library for her was 5 Worlds Book 1:  The Sand Warrior, by a whole slew of authors (seriously!).  Since it’s a graphic novel, my 4th grader wanted to read it as well; I went ahead and read it, too, and now I must review it so that I can put the next one on hold so that they can get their grasping little hands on it.

Essentially, it’s a fantasy graphic novel with familiar themes–separated siblings, the protagonist who doesn’t feel she can measure up, class misunderstandings, and differing theories about how to fix the serious problems the fantasy universe is experiencing–but a rather original setting.  (At least, I thought so, but to be fair, I don’t read a ton of fantasy!)  There are sand dancers with sand aniforms that they’re supposed to control, ancient beacons that some people think need to be lit to save the worlds and others would die to prevent their lighting, and an interesting trio of friends.  My girls were more into it than I was, but that’s purely because it’s less my thing; my only real issue was that I found it a bit difficult to keep track of all of the different peoples and worlds (I’m assuming that will get easier in subsequent books?).  Graphic novel fantasy/adventure fans, this is for you!